Here’s why Soundcloud ditched Flash for HTML5

Social sound sharing startup Soundcloud is switching to HTML5 for its default widget, essentially demoting its Flash widget to become a fallback solution. Soundcloud only introduced its HTML5 widget some three months ago, but a spokesperson told me today that it’s been a hit with users: “People are eight times as likely to share the sounds after playing them (with the) HTML5 widget as compared to the Flash version,” the spokesperson wrote via email.

One of the main reasons Soundcloud went HTML5 was of course to support sound sharing on the iPad and other mobile platforms, but the user engagement was definitely a welcome bonus as well. “We see that people are almost twice as likely to play the HTML5 widget when they see it embedded,” the spokesperson told me.

Check out the HTML5 widget in action below:

Soundcloud also added two new features to its HTML5 widget, making it possible to add comments to sounds and “like” them directly within the embedded widget.